Ex-Manchester United captain Gary Neville says the players remain “happy” under manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer despite the shock loss to Aston Villa at the weekend.

There are some supporters questioning whether Solskjaer has the credentials to mount a title challenge following the home defeat, but Neville believes it is now time to stick with the manager, rather than looking to chop and change:

“There was a lot of ‘Ole out’ talk on Saturday. The club have done that over the last eight or 10 years. It’s not worked. They will see this project through; I don’t like calling a managerial reign ‘projects’, but they will see this through. They’ve had great managers, world-class managers, international managers in the building, and it’s not worked for the club or the fans. The style of play, whatever it might be. However, it does seem at this moment that the dressing room is happy. But they’ve got to start becoming a team.”

The performance against Villa was not good enough. Solskjaer has been given the resources to build a squad capable of winning trophies on all fronts this campaign, but the Villa defeat, combined with the recent losses against Young Boys and West Ham have raised more doubts about the Norwegian’s ability.

Solskjaer has been under the cosh before whilst in the United hot seat and has come out the other side. To ease the pressure, though, he will be very keen to get a win against Villarreal in the Champions League on Wednesday night.